A money judgment entered by a Florida court lasts 20 years from the date of entry, and that is how long a judgment lasts in Florida for enforcement purposes.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment During that window the creditor can garnish wages, levy bank accounts, and hold liens against property. Two shorter clocks run inside the 20 years, though: liens on real estate expire after 10 years unless extended, and liens on personal property expire after 5. Miss those, and the underlying judgment can still be alive while its teeth are gone.
The 20-Year Outer Limit
Twenty years is the ceiling on everything. After it passes, the judgment can no longer act as a lien on any real or personal property in Florida, and no collection action of any kind survives.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment The clock starts the day the court enters the judgment, not the day of the underlying incident and not the day the creditor first tries to collect.
The full 20 years is usable time. In Salinas v. Ramsey (2018), the Florida Supreme Court held that post-judgment discovery, which creditors use to locate a debtor’s assets, is not a separate legal action subject to a shorter limitation period and remains available for as long as the judgment itself is enforceable.2FindLaw. Salinas v. Ramsey A creditor who waits a decade to look for assets has not forfeited the right to look.
How Long a Judgment Lien on Real Estate Lasts
A judgment does not automatically attach to the debtor’s real estate. To create a lien, the creditor has to record a certified copy of the judgment in the official records of the county where the property sits, and the recorded document must include the creditor’s address (or come with an affidavit supplying it). Without the address, no lien attaches.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien; Extension of Liens
Once recorded, the lien lasts 10 years from the date of recording. That is a separate clock from the 20-year judgment. A lien recorded in year one of the judgment expires in year 11 unless the creditor extends it.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien; Extension of Liens
Extending the Real Property Lien
The creditor gets one additional 10-year period by re-recording a certified copy of the judgment before the original lien expires, together with an affidavit showing a current address. The new period runs from the date of re-recording.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien; Extension of Liens The statute does not set a specific window for the re-recording; it just has to happen before the first lien lapses. Miss that, and the lien dies even if the underlying judgment is still active.
Neither the initial 10 years nor the extension can push past the judgment’s 20-year life. If a creditor records the original lien in year 15, the 10-year lien period would run to year 25 on paper, but it terminates automatically at year 20 when the judgment itself expires.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment
How Long a Judgment Lien on Personal Property Lasts
Reaching movable assets, including vehicles, equipment, bank accounts, and other non-real-estate property, requires a different filing. The creditor submits a Judgment Lien Certificate to the Florida Department of State, which creates a statewide lien against the debtor’s non-exempt personal property. Only one effective lien certificate can be on file per judgment.4Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.202 – Judgment Liens on Personal Property
That lien lasts five years from the date of filing and then lapses automatically.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.204 – Duration and Continuation of Judgment Lien
Renewing the Personal Property Lien
A second Judgment Lien Certificate can be filed anytime within six months before or six months after the original lien’s scheduled lapse date. There is a catch: the second filing creates a brand-new lien with a new priority date, not a continuation of the first. Any competing creditor who recorded a lien in the gap can jump ahead in line.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.204 – Duration and Continuation of Judgment Lien
The second lien also lasts five years and then lapses permanently. No further personal property lien can be filed on the same judgment after that. And, as with real estate liens, the personal property lien cannot survive past the judgment’s 20-year life.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment
One narrow extension exists for active levies. After the personal property lien lapses, it continues for 90 more days, but only against specific items the creditor had already identified in levy instructions delivered to the sheriff before the lapse date.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.204 – Duration and Continuation of Judgment Lien
The Balance Grows While the Clock Runs
A Florida judgment does not sit at its entry amount for two decades. Interest accrues from the date the court enters it. The Chief Financial Officer sets the rate each quarter by averaging the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s discount rate over the preceding 12 months and adding 400 basis points, or 4 percentage points. The rate then adjusts once a year on January 1 for the life of the judgment.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.03 – Rate of Interest
For the first quarter of 2026, the rate is 8.44 percent per year. On a $50,000 judgment, that works out to roughly $4,200 in interest in the first year alone. Compounded over the full 20-year enforcement window, a judgment that goes unpaid can nearly double.
What Happens When the 20 Years End
Once the 20 years expire, the judgment is over. The creditor permanently loses the right to garnish wages, levy accounts, seize property, or take any other collection action. Every lien tied to the judgment, whether on real property or personal property, and whether properly extended or not, ends at the same moment.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment
Florida does not allow a judgment to be renewed, revived, or re-filed after the 20-year period has run. The underlying debt still exists as an obligation in the abstract, but with no legal mechanism to compel payment, it has no practical force.
Out-of-State Judgments Are a Separate Question
A judgment from another state can be domesticated in Florida under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. Once a certified copy is filed with a Florida circuit court, it is treated for most purposes the same as a Florida judgment, with one open question. The Act itself does not spell out a clear limitation period. One reading gives the domesticated judgment the full Florida 20 years. Another points to a five-year statute of limitations on actions to enforce foreign judgments. Florida courts have not definitively settled it, so anyone holding an out-of-state judgment should get legal advice on timing rather than assume the full 20-year window is available.